Reclusive Moscow-allied Belarus will hold a presidential election Sunday, with President Alexander Lukashenko set to cruise through to victory unchallenged for a seventh term, prolonging his three-decade authoritarian rule.

Lukashenko -- a 70-year-old former collective farm boss -- has been in power in Belarus since 1994.

It will be Minsk's first presidential vote since he suppressed mass protests against his rule in 2020 and he has since allowed Moscow to use Belarusians territory to invade Ukraine in 2022.

Belarus's last presidential election in 2020 ended with nationwide protests, with the opposition and the West saying Lukashenko rigged the vote.

The regime responded with a huge crackdown: over 1,000 people are still in prison and tens of thousands fled the country.

All of Lukashenko's political opponents are either in prison -- some held incommunicado -- or in exile.

In a speech to supporters ahead of the vote on Friday, Lukashenko called the 2020 protests "like a vaccine" to prevent them happening again.

"All our opponents and enemies........

© International Business Times